In large population-based epidemiological studies of osteoporotic fractures, self-report is an important way of obtaining information. However, this method is subject to errors of recall and may result in misclassification of fracture status. Surprisingly, the accuracy of self-reported fractures has only rarely been assessed. The purpose of our study was to assess the accuracy of self-reported fractures in the FRISBEE cohort (Brussels, Belgium) of 3560 postmenopausal, aged 6085 years. Baseline assessment parameters were collected during an interview by trained nurses. Participants were followed yearly by phone call for the occurrence of incident fragility fractures. From 967 reported fractures, 79.3% (n=767) were radiologically confirmed. Among the 20.7% (n=200) unconfirmed fractures, 56.5% (n=113) had no fracture (true false positive; the radiology report indicated that the area was investigated but no fracture was found), for 21% (n=42) no radiology report was available (no x-ray was taken or not enough information was given to find the record), 16% (n=32) reported an existing fracture (the x-ray at the time the subject reported the fracture showed an old fracture), and 6.5% (n=13) of fractures were unconfirmed because of an equivocal radiology report or wrong declared area. Based on the fracture site, among the 56.5% (n=113) of true false positive, we found a percentage of 2.7% (n=3) for hip, 9.7% (n=11) for wrist, 9.7% (n=11) for humerus, 23% (n=26) for spine, 10.6% (n=12) for ankle, 5.3% (n=6) for pelvis and 38.9% (n=44) for minor fractures (face/skull, ribs, knee, carpal/metacarpal bones, tarsal/metatarsal bones). Further, we investigated the characteristics of individuals who gave a wrong information by using a multivariate analysis - covariates - age, BMI, fracture site, ethnicity, education, smoking, alcohol intake, history of fracture, falls, insomnia, physical activity, calcium and vitamin D intake. We found that subjects with a higher BMI (>25), with fractures on other site than hip, a lower education level, sedentarity and subjects taking calcium supplements were more likely to report unvalidated fractures. In conclusion, the inaccuracy of self-reported fractures is far from being negligible for wrist, humerus, ankle and spine and is inacceptably high for fractures considered as minor.